Throw away your old credit card statements. (Receipts are fading away..)
Over the years, I have kept track of all of my expenditures and kept every receipt for every transaction. I have been doing this since 1997. As you may have guessed, I have collected quite a number of receipts over the years. Several months ago I went through a quick purge of my old ATM receipts and shredded them all. That got rid of half of my non-credit card receipts and freed up space in my drawers. I'm now going through my receipts again and throwing away all food, parking, and movie related transactions and so far about half of my remaining non-credit card receipts seem to fall into this category.
I have also started aiming my guns at my old credit card statements and the receipts attached to them. Using the same culling criteria, most of the paper is shred-able and my once tight cabinet is becoming much more easy to manage. I still want to keep some of the receipts, especially for goods. You never know when you might need them. I am, however throwing out all of my gas receipts. Virtually every receipt that I got from a Shell gas pump from 8+ years ago has faded to a point where the text is illegible. I should scan one of them in to show you what I mean, but all you would see is a white slip of paper. In fact, they are not the only one who's receipts have faded to nothingness over the years. My Canadian Tire receipts are in the same boat. But interestingly enough, my Esso receipts are as easy to read as the day I got them.
I have gone through my old documents last year and got rid of a lot of old paperwork (old bills and the like) and ended up filling up the floor's recycling bin with all my paper shred that day. Since then I have been keeping a fairly tight ship. The only remaining unnecessary baggage were these receipts. I have already gone through seven years, but that was only 20% of the total paper. Hopefully once I cut it down it will be one less box for us to move when we find a new place.
I have also started aiming my guns at my old credit card statements and the receipts attached to them. Using the same culling criteria, most of the paper is shred-able and my once tight cabinet is becoming much more easy to manage. I still want to keep some of the receipts, especially for goods. You never know when you might need them. I am, however throwing out all of my gas receipts. Virtually every receipt that I got from a Shell gas pump from 8+ years ago has faded to a point where the text is illegible. I should scan one of them in to show you what I mean, but all you would see is a white slip of paper. In fact, they are not the only one who's receipts have faded to nothingness over the years. My Canadian Tire receipts are in the same boat. But interestingly enough, my Esso receipts are as easy to read as the day I got them.
I have gone through my old documents last year and got rid of a lot of old paperwork (old bills and the like) and ended up filling up the floor's recycling bin with all my paper shred that day. Since then I have been keeping a fairly tight ship. The only remaining unnecessary baggage were these receipts. I have already gone through seven years, but that was only 20% of the total paper. Hopefully once I cut it down it will be one less box for us to move when we find a new place.
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